Fearless
by nightofnyx7
Summary: Raven's mind has always been a battlefield for nightmares. She's spent her life preparing to fight the horrors that threaten her very existence, but she never could have anticipated the sarcastic smile of the man who never wanted to let her go. Oneshot.


**I sat down to write about a month ago and this story kind of came out. I've always liked the dynamic Beast Boy and Raven have, especially because they are polar opposites. But because I'm a sucker for seeing how couples complement each other, a little oneshot for them made me happy. I hope you enjoy it, and let me know what you think!**

* * *

Red.

Violent, unforgiving red.

The very color that connected her to the unholy demon that had brought her into existence.

It filled her mind quickly. Rage. Panic. Terror.

She saw _him,_ his one slitted eye mocking her through his orange and black mask.

_"This is it, Raven." _He taunted._ "This is what you were born to do."_

And then she saw their faces, crying out to her, begging her to save them. Lead filled her limbs and the ground opened up beneath her feet. She screamed as she fell into the black abyss, the sound of her father's merciless laughter waiting for her below.

Down.

Down.

Gone.

* * *

"NO!"

Rachel bolted upright, clutching at the sheets for support. The blurred edges around her vision sharpened as she realized where she was.

The moonlight shed a soft beam into the bedroom, illuminating the dresser against the wall. The faded wallpaper was barely visible between the crowded picture frames. Her husband snored softly beside her.

Just another nightmare.

Rachel sighed, gathering her sweaty, plastered hair up into a ponytail. This was getting old. At least she hadn't woken up Gar. The one good thing about her sleep-like-a-rock husband was that she could make all the noise in the world and he would still be snoring peacefully, not a care in the world. Sometimes she envied him for that.

Her sight rested upon the old beaten up alarm clock that sat on the bedside table. The numbers 3:38 AM glared at her in a blocky, sinister red.

The exact shade as her father.

Exasperated, she slid out of bed and walked into the kitchen. Maybe some tea would calm her down a little, and perhaps a good book to lull her back to sleep. She just couldn't ignore the pounding voices in her head that reached every inch of her.

They were in danger. They were all in terrible danger.

But that was unreasonable. They had just visited Dick and Kory yesterday to help them move into their new house, and Victor started his new job last week. Everything was perfectly normal. There was absolutely no reason to freak out over nothing.

_But is this really nothing? _Her mind whispered softly. _What if you're the only one who can save them?_

Rachel suppressed the thought and she wandered through the cluttered kitchen looking for her tea boxes. Gar's organization skills left a little to be desired, and so whenever it was his turn to clean the kitchen everything sort of became more chaotic than it had been before. She finally found a nice lemon flavor and set some water to boil.

_Danger. _The voice warned.

_Herbal Tea. _Rachel countered back.

She left the stove to search a bookshelf nearby. You could always find a book whenever you needed in the cozy home she shared with Gar. There were books on the dining table, next to the couches, hiding the countertops, and even in the bathroom. Her Shakespeare was often mixed in with Gar's comics, so every pile provided an interesting selection depending on what you were in the mood for. At first, it had annoyed Rachel how cluttered everything felt, but over the years she had grown more comfortable as she now just felt the familiar sense of home. Her house had an order, even if no one else but she and Gar understood it.

She ran her finger along the spines of a couple of old hardbacks, anticipating the stories that they held between their pages. _The Castle of Otranto?_ Or perhaps a fantasy, like _Inkheart._ She decided finally upon a dystopian novel when she heard the tea kettle whistle and hurried to turn the heat down. She had just taken it off the stove when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Awake at this hour, Rae?" Gar's voice sounded groggy and sleepy. "This is the third night in a row."

Apparently, he_ could_ be awoken from time to time.

"I just can't sleep Gar." She replied simply. "The voices are getting stronger."

Anyone who didn't know Rachel would have thought this sentence to be strange, but it hadn't phased Gar since he had met her so many years ago in Jump City.

"What are they saying this time?" He inquired. He went to the fridge and drank his almond milk straight from the carton.

"The same. Their faces keep showing up in my dreams, and everyone keeps ending up dead."

"But everything's fine, Rae," Gar said. "We're all fine. There's nothing to worry about."

"I know, it's just…it won't stop."

Garfield smiled. "I think all these books are finally getting to your head. Come on, let's go back to bed, I'll be right beside you."

Rachel signed. "Maybe you're right." She said. "Just let me enjoy some tea and I'll be up in a moment."

Gar grinned and turned to exit the kitchen. "Don't keep me waiting too long. We'll go visit everyone again tomorrow when—" He stopped suddenly as the sound of something breaking startled him. He spun around to see Rachel on the floor, clutching her head in her hands, the shattered pieces the tea kettle spilling hot water onto the floor.

"Rachel!" He rushed forward and grabbed her. "What's wrong?!"

She could feel her eyes glowing with power as her body stretched unnaturally. Then she crunched back into a ball as something seared from within, torturing her.

"Rachel, please! Come back to me!" Gar's pleadings finally drew his wife out of her trance and the power inside ceased attacking her.

"Rae?"

Gar held her in his arms and tried to warm her clammy body. She was shaking, pale and sweaty. Suddenly she grabbed hold of his arm and looked up at him with frightened eyes.

"Garfield." She whispered hoarsely. "They won't s-stop! They won't stop!"

"Shhh." He pushed back the loose hair from her face and kissed her forehead. "It's alright. I'm here, Rachel. I'm right here."

He held her tightly, trying to soothe her shaking, ragged breaths. Rachel hated feeling this way, so…not in control. She hated even more that Gar had to see her that way. She _knew_ how to control her fear, she _knew_ how to level her mind.

So why wasn't this time the same?

She could still see them every time she closed her eyes, their expressions seared into her mind. Dick, Kory, Victor, Garfield, all crying out on the ground, slowly fading until she was the only one left. What was happening to her?

She had become so lost in her thoughts that when Gar spoke she nearly jumped out of his arms.

"Do you still remember that movie we watched in the tower?" His voice sounded so far away, sliding its way through the cracks in her mind.

"What?"

"The horror movie. And you kept insisted that you're weren't scared until your emotions found another way out? And how they didn't go away until you admitted your fear?"

"Yes…" She paused. How was this relevant?

"Well," He caressed her hair between his fingers. "Maybe you're scared of something now, and so your dreams are manifesting your fear. Maybe all this has something to do with, you know, _Slade._"

Rachel squeezed her eyes shut again. That undead monster had given the Titans a right good scare a week ago, when he had suddenly appeared in Bludhaven, ten years after since the last time they saw him. He had said nothing, did nothing, only watched them from the news station tower. Dick had been searching for clues ever since, going through old piles of evidence, even searching the old tower in Jump City. Victor said it was nothing to worry about now, but Rachel wasn't so sure. She could still feel his iron hands clamped around her arms, forcing her to face the destiny she never wanted. His voice taunted her in her mediations, his masked face blurring into that of Trigons'. She was used to criminals whose agendas were simple and easy to expose. But she had never quite forgotten the mercenary who had gotten so deep inside her head.

"Victor said we couldn't do anything right now, and there's no reason to—"

"Rachel, it's okay to be scared."

She looked at him, his green eyes speaking a thousand words that she could somehow understand. She reached out and cupped her hand to his cheek, feeling his warmth spread through her fingers.

"I just can't lose you, Gar. Any of you."

He slipped his own hand over hers, bringing her fingers down to his lips. "I know, Rachel, I know. But I can't lose you either. I can't lose you…to yourself. Slade always messes with our minds. Don't you remember what he did to Dick with just a little bit of dust?"

She shivered, not wanting to recall the horrifying mirages that had haunted the Boy Wonder's head after he had been exposed to some hallucinating substance off of Slade's mask.

"Don't give him another second of your time. Don't give him that satisfaction. If he wants to fight, then we'll fight. But we're done playing games with him."

It took some time, but she could begin to see some sense in what Gar was saying. Slade was a madman yes, and his methods were never quite clear. But they had learned from experience that the more they tried to expose his plans, the worse off they became in the end. No, the best defense right now was to get a grip on what was real, and what was not.

She felt a small smile tug on her lips. No matter how much he drove her up the wall with his antics, her Garfield always had a knack for saying just the right thing when you needed it the most.

"Of course, if he really wants to play games, we could just invite him over to play Mega Monkeys 3. Vic and I would kick his butt through the roof."

Rachel scowled. "We're having a moment."

"And I am joyfully ruining it." He said playfully, pulling her into a kiss that made her forget whatever retort she was about to give him. "Come one, no use crying over spilled tea. Let's get you back to bed."

After a few more minutes of his lame jokes and gentle kisses he goaded from her, they both found themselves back in the bed she so wanted to escape from an hour ago. Gar propped himself up on his elbow to face her.

"We can call Kory tomorrow and see if that Hobbit she likes has found anything on Slade. Besides, you know you need your Mar'i fix."

"Don't you mean yourself?"

He smirked. "You know you need it, even if you won't admit it. Everyone knows Auntie Raven is her favorite!"

She groaned and he laughed, driving away the darkness. He turned off the lamp on the nightstand and pulled the covers up to block the cold wintry air. She felt his fingers stroke her cheek, his face soft and assuring in the veiled moonlight.

For a moment, she thought he was going to say something profound, just as the achingly tragic characters in her books often said to their lovers.

Instead, the corners of his lips turned upward in a knowing smirk.

"And if that creep shows up in your dreams again, you tell him to come after _moi._ Nothing's getting through this Beastly Man."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Idiot. Just shut up and hold me."

He chuckled quietly, nestling her between his arms. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest, feeling the constant beating of his heart.

And for the first time in three days, her sleep became dreamless.


End file.
